Class Set On Reading Speech

February 9, 1989|By BETSY HUTTON, to the Sun-Sentinel

Readers with partial or complete hearing loss have the opportunity to take a ``speechreading`` course that just got under way.

Speechreading Plus started Wednesday at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach and runs for six consecutive Wednesdays. Certified audiologist Rebecca Anderson teaches the class, which works on the basic principal of ``using your visual ability to augment your hearing,`` she said.

But speechreading is more than lipreading. Anderson and hospital speech pathologists will help students practice ``reading`` one another`s eyes, facial expressions, hands and body language.

``We teach our students to concentrate on the mannerisms and the context of the conversation when watching someone talk,`` Anderson said. Students will be given homework that will sometimes require getting a group of buddies together to practice how to speechread each other during, say, a bridge game.

``We discuss the socio-psychological effects of hearing loss,`` she said. ``For example, we plan a bridge party and discuss how to structure the whole hearing environment -- the best lighting and when to serve the food so it won`t interfere with conversation.``

Bethesda has taught Speechreading Plus twice before. Anderson has been a certified audiologist for eight years, working with Broward County`s Easter Seal Society before coming to the hospital in May.

The class runs from 2 to 3 p.m. in the hospital and costs $29. To register or get more information, call Bethesda Memorial Hospital public relations at 278-7733 in south county, or 737-7733 in central county, ext. 4321.